Bloom Energy Makes Lower Carbon Electricity From Gas in Chattanooga, Tennessee

July 7th, 2010 by Susan Kraemer

The state of Tennessee just got its first Bloom Energy “Server”, which turns any gaseous fuels into electricity using its cheaper new kind of fuel cell. Installed in collaboration with the TVA and the University of Tennessee Chattanooga, these 100 KW Bloom Boxes have just been installed on the top floor of the partnering EPB parking garage.

The University’s Smart Grid pioneer SimCenter National Center for Computational Engineering will monitor the performance of the technology, the University is reporting. The Bloom box is capable of making zero carbon electricity, given the right fuel. The campuses of major companies like eBay, Google, Staples, and FedEx are already running relatively uneventful pilot programs testing it.

[social_buttons]

The Bloom Box is fuel-agnostic. It could be used with landfill gas, or biogas from MSW or other waste gases, to make zero carbon electricity. It turns natural gas into electricity with a lower carbon footprint than a gas-fired power plant (which emits between 1.3 and 1.5 lbs of CO2 per kilowatt hour) with half the emissions at only 0.8 lbs of CO2 per kwh.

The real carbon reductions come when it would make use of a waste gas like landfill gas in an over 90% coal-powered state like Wyoming, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia or North Dakota. Compare it with the dominant fuel, coal, which emits 2 lbs per kwh when burned, and the improvement is dramatic – zero emissions.

This is a key innovation for the South, with its abundant supplies of waste biomass from forestry and chicken farming. There is tremendous biomass potential in nearby Alabama, Louisiana and Arkansas. Indiana is the biomass king of the 90% coal powered states, while North Dakota also has the same combination of dirty power and abundant biogas potential. Both would be great states to host a pilot fuel cell pilot.

According to Ariel Schwartz’s excellent how-it-works summary at Fast Company (the company’s own PR-speak is time-consuming to wade through) each of these boxes produces 100 kW of power, (enough to supply about 60 apartments or an office building) consists of thousands of fuel cells, costs between $700,000 and $800,000 and pays for itself in three to 5 years based on an energy cost of 8 to 9 cents per kW hour. It converts at 50-55% efficiency.

Because it is made of cheap common stuff – “sand” baked into ceramic squares that are coated with green and black inks, it is not as expensive as the traditional hydrogen fuel cells that convert fuel to electricity, but like zinc-air batteries and methanol or hydrogen fuel cells it is able to act as a storage device as well as an electricity generator.

A competitor, FuelCellEnergy points out that its hydrogen fuel cell technology can be used twice, to simultaneously produce both heat and electricity (combined heat & power; CHP from industrial suppliers in the forestry and paper industry powers a third of the Finnish grid) and can utilize coal gas and propane as well, with lower emissions than regular combustion.

Fuel cells were invented over a century ago and have been used in practically every NASA mission since the 1960’s, but until now, they have not gained widespread adoption because of their inherently high costs. Bloom Energy’s device is beginning to show some promising track record for successful operation while solving that cost issue.

Image: Bloom Energy

Susan Kraemer @Twitter

Keep up to date with all the hottest cleantech news by subscribing to our (free) cleantech newsletter, or keep an eye on sector-specific news by getting our (also free) solar energy newsletter, electric vehicle newsletter, or wind energy newsletter.

Tags: Bloom Energy, Chattanooga, chp, Combined Heat & Power, eBay, FedEx, Fuel Cells, Google, SimCenter National Center for Computational Engineering, Staples, Tennessee, University of Tennessee

About the Author

Susan Kraemer writes at CleanTechnica, CSP-Today, PV-Insider , SmartGridUpdate, and GreenProphet. She has also been published at Ecoseed, NRDC OnEarth, MatterNetwork, Celsius, EnergyNow, and Scientific American. As a former serial entrepreneur in product design, Susan brings an innovator's perspective on inventing a carbon-constrained civilization: If necessity is the mother of invention, solving climate change is the mother of all necessities! As a lover of history and sci-fi, she enjoys chronicling the strange future we are creating in these interesting times. Follow Susan on Twitter @dotcommodity.

magnetic electricity generator guy

I like this blog…excellent info. Will keep it as a favorite. Is there a facebook page?
Dr. A. Cannara

Susan Kraemer’s remarks about the Bloom Box are incorrect…

“It turns natural gas into electricity with a lower carbon footprint than a gas-fired power plant (which emits between 1.3 and 1.5 lbs of CO2 per kilowatt hour) with half the emissions at only 0.8 lbs of CO2 per kwh.”

The EPA average for US fired generation, including coal, is 1.4lbs CO2 per kWHr delivered at the customer. Gas-fired plants run well below that figure, nearer 1lb/kWHr. In fact, Bloom’s efficiency is only slightly better than the average combustion plant’s 40%. Thus, the Bloom fuel-cell design may be useful in remote areas with good gas quality, but their size & cost make them a poor choice for centralized generation.

Add to this the myth that MSW gas can be easily managed & burned in large quantities and we find real problems with the Bloom hype. Remember, they’ve been at it for some years and their VC (Kleiner Perkins…) is anxious to get some $ out of an IPO.

As for climate change, we can’t be burning anything new and it’s past time for us to get that. See p53 here, for example…

http://www.copenhagendiagnosis.org

And, remember, we’ve had over 100 years of warning from the father of industrial chemistry…

http://www.globalwarmingart.com/images/1/18/Arrhenius.pdf

Time’s long past to separate the fads from reality.

—

Dr.Alexander Cannara

650-400-3071
http://Business-Products.wikispaces.com Cortney Depuy

Kudos for the superb ideas, It was exactly what I was searching for
Lawrence Weisdorn

I don’t get it. They claim reduced CO2 from landfill gas when compared to a gas fired plant, but zero emission when compared to coal. How can that be?

The Bloom Box is fuel-agnostic. It could be used with landfill gas, or biogas from MSW or other waste gases, to make zero carbon electricity. It turns natural gas into electricity with a lower carbon footprint than a gas-fired power plant (which emits between 1.3 and 1.5 lbs of CO2 per kilowatt hour) with half the emissions at only 0.8 lbs of CO2 per kwh.

The real carbon reductions come when it would make use of a waste gas like landfill gas in an over 90% coal-powered state like Wyoming, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia or North Dakota. Compare it with the dominant fuel, coal, which emits 2 lbs per kwh when burned, and the improvement is dramatic – zero emissions.
- http://cleantechnica.com/author/susan Susan Kraemer
  
  No, it is reduced CO2 from natural gas when compared to a natural gas fired plant:
  
  “It turns natural gas into electricity with a lower carbon footprint than a gas-fired power plant (which emits between 1.3 and 1.5 lbs of CO2 per kilowatt hour) with half the emissions at only 0.8 lbs of CO2 per kwh.”